10.28.06
Posted in News, Tools & Resources at 3:47 pm by jon yang
Six Apart has been pushing the envelope for developing new (and better) blogging services and platforms. Their newest creation is entitled “Vox.” The product is aimed toward potential bloggers who want to blog, but don’t want to get bogged down by the technology behind the magic. Keeping the curtain pulled on the wizard as it were.
“Vox, which is free, lets users import audio, video, photos and other content from services like the photo sharing sites Flickr and Photobucket, and the video sharing site YouTube. Vox also provides integration with mobile devices that run on the Palm OS, Symbian OS and Windows Mobile platforms. The service also lets publishers deliver their blogs’ content via syndicated feeds.”
-IT News-
In a way, Six Apart’s new service will be competing with its current easy to use offerings such as TypePad and LiveJournal — not to mention other established services such as Blogger, Window’s Live Spaces, and My Space.
In my opinion, Vox looks beautiful — with a charming interface and website — and is a return to the idea of blogging as something super simple, not just “relatively” simple. Should the dictionary make room for a new entry in 2007? “Vox: blogging made simple.”
Oh wait, vox already means something. Scrabble anyone?
Permalink
10.26.06
Posted in Articles at 3:34 pm by jon yang
“A few of my friends have blogs where they discuss the most intimate details of their lives and post photos of themselves and friends and family. As a reader, it’s a great way of keeping tabs on them without exchanging a bunch of e-mails.
I want to join in but here’s my problem: my dear, sweet husband is an incredibly private person. And for me, that severely limits my ability to blog honestly and fully without limitations. I respect his desire for privacy. But it would mean that I would have to seriously edit any discussion about my activities, which usually include him. He wouldn’t want me posting photos of us on a Web site accessible to the world.
But a number of Internet companies are increasingly starting to offer private versions of the Web’s most popular public formats to share your life’s moments. Many people don’t know you can create a personal Web page to share photos, write about your life, post music and video, etc. — without having to share it with the world. You and your friends and family can just keep it all within your circle. In other words, it’s private blogging. An oxymoron? I’m sure some people think so.
-Sarah Goo, washingtonpost.com-
Permalink
10.23.06
Posted in Articles at 12:39 pm by jon yang
It’s not always easy to get good content on your blog. Here to help are a few recent articles. The first, by Philipp of Google Blogoscoped discusses the use of descriptive headlines, as well as sharing little tips such as “the first link is the one most people click on, so it should also be the main link for your article.”
Following up on that idea, Nathan talks about using an “hourglass” style of writing for blogs, as opposed to the traditional inverted period that has been traditionally used by news writers. The difference between the two can be revealed here.
Permalink
10.20.06
Posted in Articles, Blogs / Sites at 3:24 pm by jon yang
Wondering how much it might cost you to have your blog professionally designed? The answer may surprise you (for good or bad). Blogger and web guru Chris Pearson breaks down the costs behind designing a blog; comparing rates and explaining the work that goes into a unique design. Everyone knows that you gotta walk the talk and dressing up your blog is the equivalent of owning the blogosphere’s version of a catwalk.
The sidebar of the blog also contains such useful articles as “Improve Your Blog’s Metrics in One Easy Step” and “Snazzy Pullquotes for Your Blog.”
Permalink
10.15.06
Posted in Articles at 3:20 pm by jon yang
Here is an in-depth and very useful guide to “launching” your blog. The article focuses on thinking of your blog as a product that needs to be ushered into the marketplace with the utmost fanfare. By following these tips on first impresions, RSS feeds, social bookmarking, networking, and link building, your blog should be well on its way to becoming the next hot new thing.
Permalink
10.08.06
Posted in Articles at 11:05 pm by jon yang
“Books based on blogs — which some people have dubbed “blooks” — appeal to Japanese who rarely go online as well as to heavy Internet users. “Even people that are on the Internet regularly buy books to read on trains,” says Taichi Kogure, a marketing specialist for Ameba Books Ltd., which published “Demon Wife Diaries.”
Book publishers were among the first of the old media to grasp the potential [of blogs]. The biggest hit so far has been ‘Train Man,’ about a shy young man who rescues a girl from a drunk on a train. The book compiles the shy guy’s Internet conversations with members of his chat group. Over the course of two months, his online pals give him advice about taking the girl on a date, helping him choose an Italian restaurant, persuading him to trade in his glasses for contact lenses, and guiding him to fashionable clothing stores. One gives him a to-do list: Get a haircut at a salon, clip eyebrows, check for nose hair, shower, and buy breath mints.”
-Wall Street Journal-
Permalink
10.03.06
Posted in Articles, Topical at 11:06 pm by jon yang
Individuals are blogging from their work space, and if they do it “right,” they won’t even get fired!
“As recently as last year, when a few employees were fired elsewhere for blogging about work, Mr. Jackson’s approach would have been exceptional and cause for concern. Today, however, business blogs are becoming as common as iPods, and by some estimates are growing at a steady rate.
Rather than fight this trend and quietly hope that employees don’t reveal trade secrets, many companies are welcoming business blogs. They are betting that the medium can actually enhance a company’s reputation by providing an opportunity to build informal relationships with customers.”
-Blogging the Hand that Feeds You-
Permalink